October 16, Thursday--to Needles

Today’s destination: Needles, CA

After breakfast at the Holiday Inn, we take another tour of downtown Williams for some photos. Soon, we discover The Quilter’s Mercantile Store, which immediately swallows Ann whole. While she is attempting to escape its clutches, I walk the main street looking for photo-ops.
Leaving town, we are forced to join the interstate for about 8 miles until we escape onto the Mother Road for a 159-mile stretch of uninterrupted, 1930’s pavement. We arrive in Seligman, home of the “Father of the Mother Road”: Angel Delgadillo. Angel’s old barbershop has morphed into the best Route 66 souvenir shop we have seen. Angel is taking the day off, but his wife and daughter are on duty to deal with two busloads of tourists who arrive about 5 minutes after we do. One of the buses is loaded with Japanese tourists and they swarm the shop like army ants. We escape to the street to see the Snow Cap Drive-In, also founded by the Delgadillos It is clear that Seligman has become a Route 66 museum and curio-shop town. All along the main street, we see tourist shops full of the same-old, same-old. Only The Delgadillos seem to have chosen the “right stuff” to sell. We do get some good photos of the Roadkill Café and its clientele.

Leaving Seligman, the road arches northward toward Peach Springs. Along the way, we see a succession of Burma-Shave signs. If you remember these from the old days, they have a message spread across four signs placed about a tenth of a mile apart and a final sign saying just Burma Shave. Here are some of the gems we encountered:

It would be more fun
To go by air
If we could put these signs
Up there
Burma-Shave

The one who drives
When he’s been drinking
Depends on you
To do his thinking
Burma-Shave

If daisies are
Your favorite flower
Keep pushing up
Those miles per hour
Burma-Shave

Big mistake
Many make
Rely on horn
Instead of Brake
Burma-Shave

On past Peach Springs, Truxton, Crozier and Valentine, we find the road in good condition and the vistas magnificent. At Hackberry, we stop at the general store, another Route 66 museum and gift shop. But there are tons of splendid artifacts, old vehicles, service station tools and Burma-Shave signs to see. A 1956 Corvette sits in front of the store.

In Kingman, we have lunch at Mr. D’z, an authentic Route 66 café with authentic décor, food and patrons. We take a miss on the Arizona Route 66 Museum across the street from Mr. D’z and press on toward Oatman.

The legendary Oatman highway is a twisting, narrow road up and over Sitgreaves Pass (el. 3550). The road is in good condition but the precipices are steep and Ann spots a burned-out hulk of a car at the bottom of one of the cliffs. They didn’t read the Burma-Shave signs. The road down into Oatman is equally tortuous and delightful.

Oatman is a tourist trap of gigantic proportion. We arrive in the middle of a (scheduled) mock gunfight in the middle of the only street through town. The semi-authentic, old-west, outlaw, gunslinger theme has overpowered the Route 66 Grapes-of-Wrath theme here in Oatman. We both agreed that Oatman is way over the top in kitsch and cheesy commercialism. The resident committee of free-ranging street-burros wanders aimlessly among the crowd of camera-toting tourists, begging for a handout of snacks. Too cute for words.

Escaping Oatman without ever leaving the car, we motor serenely down into Topock and approach the Colorado River and California. At the border, we are forced to join I-40 briefly as we sail into Needles. We have been through Needles many times during the past 30 years and have always tried to avoid stopping or staying there. It was built to serve the railroad and is now one big truck stop. After having read the dismal reviews of places to stay in Needles, we decide to try a suggestion from the Route 66 Dining and Lodging Guide. We find Fender’s River Road Resort in west Needles, right on the Colorado River. It is vintage Route 66: clean, funky and nostalgic. No internet connection, but a full DirecTV menu. The air conditioner is noisy and the bathroom hardly has water pressure, but it is only for one night.

October 15-Wednesday, to Williams, AZ

We spent Tuesday in Payson for an off-day with friends.


We arrive back in Winslow at about 11:00 am from Payson. We troll slowly through “downtown” on Old Route 66 and find the splendid 1930 La Posada Hotel. It is gorgeous and we have lunch in the Turquoise Room. Delicious! We wander the hotel for a while, taking photos and enjoying the distinct atmosphere of an opulent, bygone era. The hallway containing the restrooms is lined with framed photos of notable guests of La Posada, including Albert Einstein. Winslow is and always was a railroad town and La Posada was constructed as a place for well-heeled travelers to pause on their rail journey through Arizona.

Next stop is Meteor Crater. It is NOT on Route 66, but is irresistible. This impact crater is 50,000 years old and is well worth the visit. See photo.

Back on I-40, we head for Winona (“…don’t forget Winona”) and Flagstaff. The Mother Road along this path is dirt or gravel, so we stick to the pavement of the interstate. Winona is just a few buildings and some nice trees. We see no gas stations, motels or curio shops.

Flagstaff is a classic Route 66 town: 10 miles long and 10 blocks wide. The old downtown section has several nice, old hotels and the narrow streets have been made one-way to accommodate modern traffic.

Pressing on into Williams, again mostly on I-40, we arrive at about 3:00 p.m. to see a giant pall of smoke wafting over the town from the south. It turns out to be a “controlled burn” by the Forest Service. Fortunately, the burn has been extinguished and the 10 mph wind drives the smoke away from town. After check-in at our hotel, we walk the main street of Williams and find several well-preserved and active hotels from the 1950s. Especially nice is the Route 66 Lodge. We hit a couple of nice souvenir shops and then have dinner at Pancho McGillicuddy’s (Mexican food). We get back to the hotel just in time to watch the third and final Presidential debate.

Ann's Bit:

Natalie left a good alien joke a few days ago. Thanks, Natalie!

I complained to one of my CA friends about the lack of (fabric) shopping. Ok, folks, really really rural America is what we are in. Small towns cannot support fabric shops. And so many quilt stores are closing, fully half of the ones I call are gone or closing. Maybe we all need to BUY MORE FABRIC.

OK, back to the trip. I always wanted to see the Painted Desert and the Meteor Crater and they did not disappoint. We drive across 'washes' as we go through the high desert here. A 'wash' is a miniature Grand Canyon. It makes it hard to keep driving, you want to pull over and look. As you can tell by our progress, we do a lot of pulling over and looking as it is, so we choose our stops. We stay off the Interstate and drive on "The Mother Road" as much as we can. Here in AZ, they have mostly pulled it up.

We will be in LA Saturday and being in a CITY will seem so strange. I really like rural America...except for the lack of fabric shopping.

October 13, Monday--to Winslow

Benny's Bit:

Our destination today is Winslow. There is not much left of the Old Road in the eastern part of Arizona and we decide not to drive any of the dirt sections of the old road. So, we are back on the interstate shortly after leaving Gallup. We cannot understand what happened to the old pavement. How did the Mother Road along this stretch manage to become dirt again after all these years? Did Arizona or the Feds bankroll a project to pull up and haul away all of the old concrete roadway?

To distract ourselves from this mystery, we decide to take the loop off I-40 through the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park. It is fabulous. Having never seen it before, we are stupefied by its color and grandeur. The loop ends at a highway leading into Holbrook.

Holbrook still looks like a Route 66 town. Lots of old establishments survive. We have lunch at one of them: Joe & Aggie’s Café. Then I take a photo or two of Ann standing with the dinosaurs at the Rock Shop. As we leave town on the Mother Road, we stop to admire the renovated Wigwam Motel. It is magnificent. The dozen or so old cars parked in front of the tee pees add greatly to the nostalgia.

Next stop is west of Joseph City at the Jackrabbit Trading Post, now just a Stop ‘n Go market with a nice souvenir shop. The owner, Antonio Jaquez, bought the place in 1989 and still has the big “Here It Is” sign out front. The infamous string of warning signs that stretched for miles on either side of the Jackrabbit, counting down the distance to the trading post and stoking the curiosity of every youthful traveler, are survived by just a few on either side of the Jackrabbit exit on I-40. Ann takes a photo of me astride the big fiberglass jackrabbit in front of the store.

October 12, Sunday--to Gallup

After breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express and a dash to Starbucks for the usual, we head to downtown Albuquerque for photo-ops. We find the lovely KiMo Theater, designed by the Boller Brothers, and take many pictures. One of them is shown here. Now, to find our way out of town along the pre-1937 Mother Road to Los Lunas. We see a few Historic 66 signs along the way, but never before a critical turn. McJerry’s EZ Guide keeps us on track and we finally turn west at Los Lunas after crossing the Rio Grande twice. Along the lonely stretch between Los Lunas and Mesita, we follow the railroad and we see that three very long freight trains have been stopped and sit, one after the other, on the tracks awaiting some signal to move again.

We are on Indian reservations throughout much of the day. There are prominent signs in inhabited areas warning “No photography”.

The old road parallels I-40 through Laguna, Cubero and into Budville, where we find the Budville Trading Co. closed on this Sunday morning. On through San Fidel and McCarty’s, we stop for lunch in Grants at the only place that has a crowd: the Dairy Queen. Inside, we see some splendid murals on the walls depicting Route 66.

On through Prewitt and Thoreau, we stop at Continental Divide, apparently named for the geographical feature that allegedly passes through the spot. We visit two of the three gift shops located on The Divide; both are pretty good. Outside the second gift shop, we see a mural suggesting that the local Indians may have interbred with aliens from Roswell, NM. (See photos.)

From here, we cruise on into Gallup. The Mother Road is a main thoroughfare in Gallup and is called Old Hwy. 66. The town stretches for about 8 miles along the road. We stop to admire the 1937 El Rancho Hotel, famous for its connection with Hollywood, which has many rooms named after movie stars. Not wanting to be recognized, we decide to stay at the new Hampton Inn, west of town.

At sunset, we drive back into downtown Gallup to photograph the mural art, the giant cowboy holding a muffler at John’s Used Cars, and the lovely El Morro Theater (also designed by the Boller Brothers) on Coal Ave. The temperature is already down to 42 and there is talk of a freeze tonight. Brrrr.

Ann's Bit: I am glad B is doing this. It is surprising how much one forgets so this will be a good chronicle of our journey (yes, I will print it out, maybe do one of the photo books like my friend, Joanne, does).

Love the scenery, all of it, even the junk yards at every Indian house. They don't landscape anything ever without exception. Their pottery IS lovely tho, thinking I might indulge in some as a memento of this trip. I do love the western USA.

October 11-Saturday-to Albuquerque

From Ann:
A few pics today, we were on Interstate most of the day as Route 66 was pulled up here in New Mexico. Lil Blue's engine checklight came on and that increased our determination to get to Santa Fe early. The Chrysler dealer there diagnosed it, reset the light, and did not charge. Cylinder 3 is mis-firing. B bought the wires to repair it and hopes to use Jarve's garage to do so when we visit there.
Terrific storm in Santa Fe, so we drove through it south to Albuquerque. We visit these two cities about every 3 years so don't feel TOO badly about missing them. The wind is blowing about 40 mph, so outside is not fun!
OK, off to enjoy some of that New Mexico-style Mexican food!

Ben's Bit:

Right after breakfast, we head to the Blue Swallow Motel to get some good photos in the morning light. Across the street and a block east is the Tee Pee Curio Shop. The entrance is through a concrete teepee. It is 9:00 am, the store has just opened and we are the only ones there. The owner looks like a slightly taller, chubbier George Carlin: long pony tail and full, fuzzy beard. He never says a word to us the entire time we are in his store. He is feeding dog biscuits to a Jack Russell terrier. His collection of curios is good.

We leave town via the interstate because the old Road lies underneath it for most of the way to Santa Rosa, NM, our next stop. We expected this to happen out west. There are long spans of the Mother Road that have been swallowed by I-40, bulldozed back to dirt or are inaccessible except with a 4WD vehicle. Santa Rosa is larger and livelier than we expected. There are still plenty of shuttered businesses and motels. The interstate bisects the city. We head back onto I-40 and just a few miles down the road, we turn north to follow the pre-1937 alignment of The Road. Near Dilia, we stop to take a photo of the gathering storm ahead. We drive on toward Santa Fe via Romeroville, Pecos and Glorieta. Just outside Santa Fe, we run into fierce thunderstorms and driving rain. The wind is blowing at about 30 mph. This is the first rain we have had since leaving Chicago. We arrive in Santa Fe and find out that the area is under tornado warning and heavy thunderstorms are forecast. After sizing up the situation, we decide that walking the Santa Fe Plaza will not be any fun in this weather. We head south for Albuquerque and arrive at 4:00 pm. The weather has cleared and a splendid sunset is blooming. Dinner at Gardunos Mexican Cantina is accompanied by an excellent, live mariachi band (Los Primos) and a Mexican folk dancer. She is outstanding and is wearing an authentic circular cotton skirt/dress with broad lace and satin trim.

Tomorrow, we head for Gallup.

October 10, Friday--Tucumcari, NM

As we pick up Route 66 near downtown Shamrock, we pause to admire and photograph the magnificent U-Drop Inn. Down the road in McLean, we encounter an abandoned service station on the eastern edge of town. It looks like many of the dying structures we have seen along the Road. A bit further down the main drag, we find the lovingly-restored Philips 66 station that claims to be the first Philips 66 station on Route 66.

Back on the Road, just outside Jericho, we stop at the beautiful, new Route 66 Rest Stop put up by Donley County. It is an art-deco masterpiece inside and out. In the restrooms, they have put a mural made of colored tiles depicting “Get Your Kicks on Route 66”. Donley County has really pulled out the checkbook to put this rest stop in operation. Hooray for their effort!

We enter the outskirts of Amarillo and follow Historic Route 66 signs to Barnaby’s Beanery for lunch. It is packed with lunchtime locals and the pinto beans and cornbread are delicious. Driving out of Amarillo, we encounter the “Cadillac Ranch”. It is ten mid-60’s Cadillacs (with fins) half-buried in the ground and each covered with graffiti two inches thick. I have photos of the Cadillacs when they were first “planted” in their previous location. They looked new. They are pretty beat up and sad looking now.

We leave Amarillo and drive past the enormous and stinky stockyards at Bushland, then on through Vega to Adrian. Adrian claims to be the half-way point on Route 66. We stop in the Midpoint Café, where the proprietor tells us that the Irishmen on Harleys came barreling through last week and the Dutchmen on Solex mopeds came through yesterday. They also saw the well-heeled Englishmen who shipped their vintage Jaguar sports cars over to the USA in order to drive the length of Route 66. We have not seen that group. I have my picture taken leaning on the midpoint sign across the street from the café.

As soon as we drive west from Adrian, the terrain immediately begins to change from super-flat Texas panhandle to the three-dimensional mesa and arroyo pattern so typical of New Mexico. We haven’t crossed the border yet. At the ghost town of Glenrio, we cross into New Mexico and change to the Mountain Time zone. We have to join the interstate at the border because the Mother Road has deteriorated into DIRT for the stretch from Glenrio to San Jon. At San Jon, we leave I-40 and take the rough, paved road toward Tucumcari, only 22 miles away.

Arriving in Tucumcari, we troll the three mile stretch of Route 66 through town, past a dozen scraggly-looking motels trying desperately to hang on until we reach the legendary Blue Swallow Motel. It is TINY! The rooms cannot be any more than 10’ by 10’. The lobby is a Route 66 gift shop. The exterior of the lobby wears murals of James Dean and scenes from Route 66. It has been recently restored and is open for business. We decide to stay in the brand new Holiday Inn Express where there is high-speed internet and other enticing amenities.

On a culturo-economic note, we have not seen a Starbucks since we left Dallas on Wednesday. We have stayed in smaller Oklahoma and Texas towns which think coffee is brown water. The best we have been offered is “Seattle’s Best Coffee”, which is more brown water. Tomorrow, we arrive in Santa Fe, where there are numerous Starbucks to whet our craving for the real Joe.